Politics

Bloomberg Italy’s euroskeptic League leader Matteo Salvini sees a “real” chance that Italy’s next government will be between the center-right coalition and the populist Five Star Movement, according to an interview in Corriere della Sera. The coalition’s policy differences with Five Star “are less pronounced than people think,” Salvini said in the article. “There’s a real possibility to build a ...

Bloomberg Sixteen years ago, Viktor Orban refurbished a palace overlooking the Danube River in Budapest as a new office to mark his re-election as Hungary’s prime minister. Then a surprise defeat prevented him from moving in and he spent the rest of the decade in opposition. The older, grayer, and heavier Orban is now the ringleader of Europe’s nationalist insurgence ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Najib Razak is doubling down on his traditional vote banks in an election manifesto, pledging that under his government Malaysians would live “peacefully and prosperously.” His Barisan Nasional coalition is pledging to introduce a law for Shariah-compliant property sales, help ethnic Malay farmers resolve their debts, build more affordable housing for the police and military, and ensure ...

MUENSTER / Reuters A man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a popular restaurant in the old city centre of Muenster in western Germany on Saturday, killing several of them before taking his own life, police said. “There are several dead,” a police spokeswoman said, adding that several of those injured were in critical condition. A ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he will turn himself in to police, finally ending a tense stand-off with the authorities after he ignored a court-ordered deadline to begin a prison sentence. “I will comply with their order,” Lula said to a crowd of supporters gathered in front of his former union headquarters in a working-class ...

Bloomberg The US is taking sanctions against Russia to a new level. The US Treasury turned away from past efforts like curbs on visas to unleash measures that will sever access to global financial markets, buyers and suppliers for several of Russia’s Kremlin-connected billionaires. One of them, Oleg Deripaska, bears the brunt. And sanctions against him entangle some of the ...

MOSCOW / Reuters The Russian embassy in London has sent a request for a meeting of its envoy, Alexander Yakovenko, with British foreign minister Boris Johnson to discuss the investigation of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter poisoned in Salisbury, the RIA news agency reported on Saturday. “We hope for a constructive response from the British side and are counting ...

GAZA / Agencies A Palestinian journalist died on Saturday after being wounded by Israeli fire while covering deadly protests along the Israel-Gaza border, health officials said. Yaser Murtaja, 30, a cameraman for Palestinian Ain Me-dia, was the 29th Palestinian killed in the week-long protests. Photos showed Murtaja lying wounded on a stretcher wearing a navy-blue protective vest marked ‘PRESS’ in ...

MELBOURNE / Reuters Australian voters want Malcolm Turnbull to remain prime minister, according to an opinion poll on Saturday, as questions about his leadership gain momentum with his coalition facing possibly the 30th straight loss in a major poll on Monday. Losing 30 Newspolls, one of the country’s most respected political polls, would be a symbolic blow for Turnbull since ...

Bloomberg The triple alliance of Russia, Turkey and Iran, now the dominant actors in Syria’s war, is stepping up efforts to impose a peace. It may end up presiding over a partition. Russian President Vladimir Putin is meeting his Turkish and Iranian counterparts in Ankara on Wednesday for their latest summit on Syria’s future. The three leaders have buried their ...